Orangutans use iPads to choose their next meal

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Zookeepers at a Miami zoo have begun communicating with orangutans through an iPad. Using an app originally used for children with autism, the orangutans are selecting which snacks they wish to feast on by pressing the corresponding icons.

The zoo, the Jungle Island Animal Park, plans to be able to provide a virtual menu for the orangutans enabling them to pick and choose their food.

Further down the line, the Miami zoo hopes to install larger interactive screens that will be paired with the iPads to also allow visitors to interact with the orangutans in an effort to get more people interested in the animals.

The zoo has released video footage of the orangutans learning to use their iPads, which can be see below. The animals are seen poking their fingers through their metal cages as they point and press on virtual icons such as bananas, coconuts and carrots.